Dublin offense goes aerial against Ranger

Sunday

DUBLIN—Use the passing game to dominate the opponent’s defense— take two.

If the Dublin Lions would have been in a movie during the pre-season, that would have been the name of the set being shot here Friday.

For the second consecutive week, the Dublin passing attack was unstoppable. After dominating Comanche through the air in their first scrimmage, the Lions scored four touchdowns via airmail against Ranger.

Senior quarterback Dewayne Keith threw all four scoring strikes, tossing two each to Derrick Reeder and Aaron Teague.

Reeder made Dublin’s biggest defensive play of the night, recovering a Ranger fumble to set up a touchdown.

It wasn’t a total walk in the park for the Dublin defense. Ranger scored first in the scrimmage, scrambling into the endzone on a fourth-down play from the Dublin 12-yard line.

“We were a little flat defensively, and didn’t come out ready at the start,” DHS Head Coach Dwayne Ross said. “It was more mental than anything.”

Dublin wasted no time striking back. Keith led the first-team offense out for its first session during the controlled portion of the battle, and dropped a pair of bombs into the hands of Reeder, who outran the defense to paydirt.

The second-team offenses were each given a possession at the end of controlled play, but nobody scored.

The live-ball portion of the scrimmage was played with a 24-minute running clock. Dublin scored twice in live-ball, while Ranger found the endzone once.

Reeder’s fumble recovery came on the first possession for RHS. It was immediately followed by a 25-yard pass and catch from Keith to Teague for the touchdown.

Ranger came back with a scoring pass of its own. The Bulldogs ran a bootleg, and the Dublin defense bit on the playfake. With time to throw, the Ranger QB found a receiver in the front corner of the end zone for their final score.

Keith dialed up Teague’s number once again on the ensuing possession, connecting on Dublin’s fourth and final touchdown strike of the night.

While Ross was confident in his team’s passing attack, it was the running game that concerned him after Dublin’s first scrimmage in Comanche. He felt there was great improvement on the ground against Ranger Friday.

“Sam Lopez and Keith each had a couple really good runs,” he said.

Also impressive is new Dublin kicker Edgar Rodriguez, who was 3-4 on extra point kicks. His only miss came after a bad snap threw off his timing.

“He hit one from about 55 yards in practice this week,” Ross said.

Rodriguez, a sophomore, has never played football before, but participates in adult soccer leagues.

“He could become a great weapon for us this year,” Ross said.

Dublin has now completed its pre-season schedule. The Lions begin their regular season slate against Clifton here Friday.

Ross said the Lions may be without Junior Garcia, an all-district selection on the offensive line in 2006, due to injury.

A great defensive battle unfolded when Dublin visited Clifton last fall. The DHS stop troops shut the Cubs down to capture the win, 8-0.

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